Gold
It is often asked "Gold? Silver? Zen? What?"
So, the short answer:
- $1 (US Dollar) = 100 zen = 1 gold = 100 silver
Gold and silver can ONLY be spent in the boutique, and in the boutique, you can ONLY spend gold and silver.
Now, the longer answer:
You buy 'Zen'. This can then be sent to several different games, not just perfect world.
(Zen is completely different from AOE_Zhenning)
Buying Gold with real World Cash
Just in case you can't find it - the link you want from the main site is this one:
When you buy Zen, you need to decide how much, and how you are going to pay. Depending upon the method, there might be a bonus ($50 buys $5300, and there are regularly 20% extra sales) - these are shown on the page:
There might also be a fee (your credit card might charge you something, there might be a fee for converting to US$) These fees aren't under the games control,, and will only show up once you've got to the confirmation screen.
The first time you try to buy zen by any of the methods you will have to answer all sorts of security questions; not least of which being your credit card number.
Perfect world may also, then, send you an email which you need to read and do as it says (filling out yet another security confirmation form) - you will need the information you entered when you created your account to do this.
After that's done, you'll get sent another couple of emails (one from paypal, or whoever you used to pay with) and one from perfect world, confirming that the money has gone through.
If you don't get these - check your spam folders! You might have the 'answer these questions' email in there, and you won't get your gold untill you reply.
Once you've bought money, you decide which game to spend it on (perfect world, obviously) and which server to send it to.
The server choice screen shows which characters are on which server, so be sure to send it to the right one.
Note: There is a limit of $100 per payment method, per day. If you reach this limit then the website will give you an email address which you can write to and ask for it to be upgraded.
Buying Gold With Coin
Gold can be purchased with (and sold for) in-game coin. This process is fiddly and deserves its own guide. The quick version is that it's auctioned off, players set the prices, and there's a 2% tax.
The value fluctuates, generally going up when there's a sale on popular items. Right now, thanks to Jolly-Jones (who buys guardian angels in exchange for items which give extra experience) and a reward chest (available from rebirth or the cube, which uses a $5 hammer to open, and gives 1,000,000 coins) the value of gold is running pretty high, around the 180,000 coins level. GMs have stated that they intend to push the price of gold down in the long run.
Is this value current as of 06/07/10 ? please edit with answer listed here pertaining to monitoring the exchange rate, thnx -arxiia
Spending Your Gold
Note: Gold will only appear in your account when you log in. If you bought Zen whilst still logged in, you'll have to log off and back on again for it to become available.
Your gold is shared between all the characters on that server. If one character spends it, then it's gone - you can spread it between your characters how you like, but you won't be able to, for example, charge up $10 and buy all of your characters a Ground mount with it. They would need $10 each.
Gold is spent in the Boutique, more commonly called the Cash Shop. Press 'Alt+O' whilst in game to see it.
--Vitenks
